"Is Submission Not Preferable To Extinction?"

Quoth the villain.

I was somewhere in my early teens when I received my first PC equipped with cutting edge technology such as a Pentium III processor and a 32 MB video card and a fresh copy of Windows 95. Excited, I struck out to my local Walmart, eager to find a suitable game for my sweet rig. I had several choices in mind before I found, in a corner, a game called Baldur's Gate. Honestly, the only reason I bought it was because the game came on a whopping 6 CDs. My logic at the time was "Dude this game only fits on 6 CDs? It has GOT to be awesome!" Luckily for me, I was right. Though certainly not perfect, Baldur's Gate consumed massive hours of my free time that was spent wandering around its massive open world. This is the start of my love affair with development studio BioWare.

A few years later the sequel to Baldur's Gate released. Improving on the first in every way, it is to this day my favorite PC game of all time. All my friends were playing Diablo, but they had no idea what they were missing (A much better game). BioWare made it OK for western developers to make great role-playing games and was one of the first studios to break the stranglehold the Japanese had on the genre. Baldur's Gate was followed by Neverwinter Nights, another development milestone. BioWare then moved to consoles with Knights of the Old Republic, which made Star Wars games cool again (And had a better story than the actual prequels). With the release of the Xbox 360, BioWare was given greater resources and power to develop. They turned this into the massive Sci-Fi game Mass Effect.

I can wax hyperbolic about this game forever so I'll get to the point quickly. Mass Effect is incredible. Incredible is not an incredible enough word. Mass Effect is transcendent to the medium. It is an epic space opera tale inhabiting a simple video game. BioWare has always had top notch writing talent, but this is something different. Baldur's Gate 1/2 was a story built upon a foundation of Dungeons & Dragons. Good, but not terribly original from other medieval fantasy tales. KOTOR was obviously built on the well-established Star Wars mythos. Even so, the story in KOTOR is more interesting than the story in the 3 prequels. But with Mass Effect, BioWare takes all their influences and weaves them together into an original story that is better than 95% of books, movies, television, and other games.

Mass Effect puts you in the boots of Commander Shepard. Shepard is a human, whose appearance, gender, and entire back story can be customized by the player. I played as a female named Sarah who was Earthborn and who was a hero in a past mission. Some might think that this much detailed customization would dehumanize the character of Shepard. In fact, the opposite is true. I am so accustoms to my version of Shepard that when I see versions other players have created in videos it seems wrong to me. After Shepard is created, you get to pick the class. This is a big decision, because it dramatically affects the way you will be playing the game. You can choose from Soldier, Engineer, Adept, or a hybrid combination of two. Playing as a soldier is as close to a Gears of War as you can get in this game, with the emphasis on shooting. An Engineer is more valuable for its Tech abilities which wreck havoc on synthetic enemies. Meanwhile an Adept is the "wizard" of this game, able to use biotic abilities similar to magic.

But lets get to the story. I am a sucker for a good sci-fi romp. Video gaming is especially fruitful in this genre. Without delving into spoiler territory, the Mass Effect universe is as fleshed out as Star Wars or any other iconic fiction. Space is perhaps the last great mystery to us homosapiens. The scope of the universe and the vast amount of unknowns that still exist spark our imaginations. Mass Effect tickles this wonder while delving into greater issues that are common to our society but transplanted to a galactic stage. We are always searching for intelligent life in the universe, and yet, what happens when we find it? Mass Effect presents a unique scenario. As the dominant species on Earth, we are used to being the highest on the food chain. We are the masters of our domain, we control our universe. Mass Effect presents humanity as a stumbling bunch of naive creatures who colonize the new planets of the galaxy because, well, we can. The question Mass Effect asks, is what if humanity was suddenly knocked off their high horse? Humans in Mass Effect are regarded as a lower class species to the ancient races of the Citadel Council. As Shepard, your mission is to prove to the galaxy that humanity is not insignificant. All of this is presented in set pieces that are so well put together you'd swear you were watching a movie. Observe:

The characters make this all work. As I stated above, Shepard alone provides a deep bond with the player, but the supporting cast is just as well done. The dialogue is all sharp and spot on. You will grow attached to the characters in the game, and your moral choices will influence them as well. Morality in this game is one of its key strengths. Unlike past BioWare titles, the morality scale is not one meter. Paragon (Good) and Renegade (Bad) are separate, which means there is no consequence for the occasional evil choice when trying to be good or vice-versa. I found that this system made me choose based on what I truly thought I should do, rather than what I thought I should do to keep my morality scale tipped one way or the other. And believe me, the choices in this game are not light or easy. Towards the end of the game, you will be forced to make choices that have enormous impact on the entire game. They are emotionally charged, and there is no clear cut line between good and evil. This is true of the villain as well. Not only did I feel sympathy for the villain's plight, I actually sort of agreed with him. Also, apparently being a renegade equals punching a lot of people in the face:

The haunting soundtrack is another part of this game that was nailed. Epic themes and sounds echo such sci-fi classics as Star Trek and Dune, while retaining an almost retro sound of its own. The standout track is the somber tune played while navigating your ship's galaxy map. It's eargasmic.

Yes, the game has its flaws. While the story planets are all gorgeously designed and excellent all around, the optional planets feel very randomly generated and bland. Similarly, most of the side quests feel lame and standard. There are literally only three different places side quests take place. An underground complex, a standard building, and a mining complex. And you visit these nearly identical rooms many times. I mostly blame Microsoft for this. The game probably was rushed, as Microsoft needed as many AAA titles for the 360 at that point as they could get. A couple other minor peeves such as your exploratory vehicle handling like shit and the guns not really feeling like powerful weapons exist, but they aren't deal breakers by any means.

I actually bought Mass Effect around a year and a half ago, yet never played it until now. Now, I am working on my third play through, and could probably play through several more times. It will drawn you in and never lose its magic until the end, it's that good. Don't make the same mistake I did. If you haven't, play this game now.

5 Krogan Testicles out of 5

*Oh and the much ballyhooed love scene? Completely tame. I cannot believe people were in a tizzy over that. The media is full of retards.